Plane crash kills 150 people in French Alps; Europe in shockSEYNE-LES-ALPES, France (AP) — A black box recovered from the scene and pulverized pieces of debris strewn across Alpine mountainsides held clues to what caused a German jetliner to take an unexplained eight-minute dive Tuesday midway through a flight from Spain to Germany, apparently killing all 150 people on board. The victims included two babies, two opera singers and 16 German high school students and their teachers returning from an excha...

GOP senator behind Iran letter: Hard-charging rookieWASHINGTON (AP) — The rookie Republican senator leading the effort to torpedo an agreement with Iran is an Army veteran with a Harvard law degree who has a full record of tough rhetoric against President Barack Obama's foreign policy. But none of Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton's previous forays into national security made quite the impression, or raised as many hackles, as the letter he authored this week lecturing Iran's leaders on American democra...

Police hunt gunmen who killed 12 in attack on French newspaperPARIS (AP) — Masked gunmen stormed the offices of a satirical newspaper that caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, methodically killing 12 people Wednesday, including the editor, before escaping in a car. It was France's deadliest terrorist attack in half a century. Shouting "Allahu akbar!" as they fired, the men also spoke flawless, unaccented French in the military-style noon-time attack on the weekly paper Charlie Hebdo, located near Paris' Bas...

Why the US will power the world economy in 2015The United States is back, and ready to drive global growth in 2015. After long struggling to claw its way out of the Great Recession, the world's biggest economy is on an extended win streak that is edging it closer to full health. But the new year doesn't look quite so bright in other major countries. China is slowing as it transitions from investment to consumption. Japan has slid into a recession. Russia appears headed for one. Europe is b...

Search resumes for missing AirAsia passenger jetThe search for a missing AirAsia jet carrying 162 people that disappeared more than 24 hours ago on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore resumed with first light Monday. First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center commander at the Surabaya air force base, said that 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were talking part, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia. Setiaya said visibili...

Sony cancels 'The Interview' Dec. 25 release NEW YORK (AP) — Under the threat of terrorist attacks from hackers and with the nation's largest multiplex chains pulling the film from its screens, Sony Pictures Entertainment took the unprecedented step of canceling the Dec. 25 release of the "The Interview." The cancellation, announced Wednesday, was a startling blow to the Hollywood studio that has been shaken by hacker leaks and intimidations over the last several weeks by an anonymous gr...

Sydney cafe siege ends; 3 dead, including gunman SYDNEY (AP) — The deadly siege began in the most incongruous of ways, on a sunny Monday morning inside a cheerful cafe in the heart of Australia's largest city. An Iranian-born gunman burst in, took 17 workers and customers hostage, and forced some to hold a flag with an Islamic declaration of faith above the shop window's festive inscription of "Merry Christmas." It ended after midnight with a barrage of gunfire that left two hostages and the...

Cosmic 1st: European spacecraft lands on cometDARMSTADT, Germany (AP) — Hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, a European spacecraft made history Wednesday by successfully landing on the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet — an audacious cosmic first designed to answer big questions about the origin of the universe. Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations for the European Space Agency, said the landing on the comet named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko appeared to have been almost perfect...

2 dead in shooting attack at Canada's Parliament OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — A gunman with a scarf over his face shot to death a Canadian soldier standing guard at the nation's war memorial Wednesday, then stormed Parliament in a hail of gunfire before he was killed by the usually ceremonial sergeant-at-arms, authorities and witnesses said. The attack immediately raised the specter of terrorism, with Canada already on alert because of a deadly hit-and-run earlier in the week against two Canadian ...

US Ebola patient diesWASHINGTON (AP) — The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. died Wednesday despite intense but delayed treatment, and the government announced it was expanding airport examinations to guard against the spread of the deadly disease. The checks will include taking the temperatures of hundreds of travelers arriving from West Africa at five major American airports. The new screenings will begin Saturday at New York's JFK International Airp...

Hong Kong protesters threaten to occupy buildings HONG KONG (AP) — Raising the stakes in their standoff with the authorities, Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters threatened to occupy key government buildings unless the territory's top official resigns by the end of the day Thursday. The Chinese government, meanwhile, appeared to be losing patience. An editorial solemnly read Wednesday on state TV said all Hong Kong residents should support authorities in their efforts to "deploy police enfor...

Ebola-infected passenger was sent home from ERDALLAS (AP) — The airline passenger who brought Ebola into the U.S. initially went to a Dallas emergency room last week but was sent home, despite telling a nurse that he had been in disease-ravaged West Africa, the hospital said Wednesday in a disclosure that showed how easily an infection could be missed. The decision by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to release the patient, who had recently arrived from Liberia, could have put others at...

Clooney marries human rights lawyer in Venice VENICE, Italy (AP) — George Clooney married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Saturday, the actor's representative said, out of sight of pursuing paparazzi and adoring crowds. A smiling Clooney traveled up the spectacular Grand Canal to his wedding standing coolly aboard a water-taxi, waving to hundreds of well-wishers on shore and a flotilla of photographers chasing a glimpse of his final moments of bachelorhood. With the pink sunset casting...

Video shows slaying of British aid worker BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State extremists released a video showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, who was abducted in Syria last year, and British Prime Minister David Cameron late Saturday condemned his slaying as "an act of pure evil." Cameron confirmed Haines' death in a statement posted on his official Twitter account after the British Foreign Office had said earlier that it was "working urgently to verify the video." Haine...

Obama orders airstrikes in Syria for first time WASHINGTON (AP) — Opening a new military front in the Middle East, President Barack Obama authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria for the first time Wednesday night, along with expanded strikes in Iraq as part of "a steady, relentless effort" to root out Islamic State extremists and their spreading reign of terror. "We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are," Obama declared in a prime-time address to the nation f...

Italy's Vincenzo Nibali wins Tour de FrancePARIS (AP) — Vincenzo Nibali put his lungs and legs to work one last time, marching up to the winner's podium of the Tour de France and sighing deeply before the Italian anthem echoed over the Champs-Elysees. Chants of "Vin-cen-zo!" rang across the famed avenue for the Sicilian, who dominated the race nearly from the start three weeks ago and on Sunday became the first Italian to win cycling's greatest race since Marco Pantani in 1998. Marcel ...

Air Algerie flight 'probably crashed' in MaliALGIERS, Algeria — An Air Algerie flight carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso to Algeria's capital disappeared from radar early Thursday over northern Mali during a rainstorm, officials said. France deployed fighter jets to search for wreckage and the country's president said the plane most likely crashed. The MD-83 vanished less than an hour after takeoff from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Air Algerie Flight 5017 was operated by ...

Ukraine: 298 on Malaysia plane shot down over east HRABOVE, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine accused pro-Russian separatists of shooting down a Malaysian jetliner with 298 people aboard Thursday, sharply escalating the crisis and threatening to draw both East and West deeper into the conflict. The rebels denied downing the aircraft. American intelligence authorities believe a surface-to-air missile brought the plane down but were still working on who fired the missile and whether it came from the Russia...

89 killed in worst Afghanistan bombing since 2001 KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near a busy market and a mosque in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 89 people in the deadliest insurgent attack on civilians since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. The blast destroyed numerous mud-brick shops, flipped cars over and stripped trees of their branches, brutally underscoring the country's instability as U.S. troops prepare to leave by the end...